Glitch in system

Oops. You can't always believe what you read on the Internet about voting in Midland County.

Midland County residents will continue to use punch cards, not optical scanning equipment, to vote on Nov. 5. That's regardless of what's sometimes said by the state's new Voter Information Center on the Internet.

A Daily News editor tried the new center this morning. After he entered his name, the site told him he'd be voting at Adams Elementary School using optical scanning equipment. Then it explained how to use the new system.

But Chief Deputy Midland County Clerk Ann Manary said punch cards will instead remain in use throughout the county and that she doesn't know how the wrong information got into the state's system.

Then Manary put her name into the state's system and was accurately told where she'd be voting and that she'd be using punch cards.

At the editor's suggestion, Manary then put the editor's name into the system and got the same erroneous information he received hours earlier.

The editor's call reporting the glitch was the first such call the secretary of state's office has received, said Julie Pierce of the office of communication. She said she'd look into it.

"Sooner or later wires get crossed" when a database contains more than 6.7 million registered voters, she said.

Michigan is leading the way nationally by offering voters an Internet site that will tell them if theyre registered to vote, where to vote, how to get to their polling places and who will be on the ballot, the Associated Press reports.

State officials unveiled the center Thursday. Secretary of State Candice Miller said its the first state Web site in the country to provide such comprehensive election-related information.

In any election, there are always instances when voters go to the wrong polling place or assume they were registered to vote in one jurisdiction or precinct when they were actually registered in another, Miller said.

The Voter Information Center cuts through the confusion by providing voters immediate access to the information they need, including their voter registration status and location of their polling place.

Miller had two warnings: The system depends on information supplied by local clerks, and it cant force people to vote.

Sen. Dianne Byrum, D-Onondaga, said the state must make sure local clerks are doing their job properly registering voters and updating records for the system to work as it should.

Theres a potential weak link, Byrum said. There needs to be stronger relations between the secretary of state and the local clerks.

The site will provide the names of statewide candidates on the ballot, but not those running for local races. It also will list ballot proposals and campaign finance information.

Voters can get detailed instructions on using the voting equipment at their particular polling place from the site, as well as updated election results once the election is over.

The Voter Information Center is produced in partnership with the nonprofit organization Publius, which concentrates on developing Web tools to enhance citizen participation in elections.